How can we promote diverse and species-rich agricultural landscapes effectively and effortlessly? The Netherlands has already found an answer: since 2016, our neighbors have been implementing the agri-environment-climate measures (AECM) of the 2nd CAP pillar exclusively on the level of cooperatives, making them pioneers in the EU. During the KOMBI excursion to Maastricht on October 10, 2024, participants from administration, research and the project's model regions gained an insight into the practical implications of this approach for farmers, cooperatives and authorities.
In the Netherlands, farmers join forces regionally in a total of 40 cooperatives across the country. Each cooperative coordinates the AECM at landscape level and applies for funding in a joint effort. This makes the measures more effective and also reduces the workload for farms and authorities.
In the Netherlands, for example, with around 12,000 participating farms, only 40 applications need to be processed. Thanks to the certification system that has been introduced, the cooperatives and their farmers enjoy a high level of trust, which gives them more flexibility and freedom.
This in turn benefits the field hamster, among others: the cooperatives can bring together suitable areas from different farms adapted to the rodent's needs, coordinate mowing times or the cultivation of neighboring fields. In this way, the hamster, which is on the international Red List of Threatened Species, is being repopulated in breeding and reintroduction programs in the province of Limburg.
KOMBI develops cooperative models for Germany
Full of impressions, the participants of the field trip returned the next day for a workshop. After all, the central question of KOMBI remains: how can cooperative agricultural nature conservation be organized in Germany? In groups, they discussed various scenarios, their conditions and possibilities. Important impulses came from the Netherlands: mutual trust between agriculture and administration, a focus on common goals, a healthy dose of pragmatism and very good communication between the stakeholders determined the success of the cooperatives there.
The workshop was not yet able to present a German model. However, the intensive exchange, the insights gained and the positive impressions from the Netherlands will help to develop the KOMBI model to suit Germany.
The joint project “KOMBI - collective models for the conservation of biodiversity”, funded in the Federal Biological Diversity Programme by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, aims to co-design, co-develop, and facilitate the implementation of CAP mechanisms allowing collaborative actions in agriculture to support the conservation and protection of biodiversity in the agricultural landscape. Thus, the most pressing questions at this project phase are:
Can collaborative CAP-based mechanisms preserve biodiversity of agricultural landscapes?
To what extent can such an approach reduce the bureaucratic burden?
KOMBI assures involvement of multiple stakeholder groups representing local authorities, farmers and conservationists of multiple regions in Germany.
For more information on the project KOMBI or the event, please visit https://kombi-agrar.de/ or contact Vanessa Immel (v.immel@dlg.org).